The authors concluded that marijuana may be an important and under-recognized source of lead and cadmium exposure by comparing these parameters between marijuana users and non-users.

This is one of the first studies to report biomarker levels of metals in marijuana addicts and most likely the largest investigation to date, linking self-reported use with internal measures of metal exposure.

Because the cannabis plant is a known metal eliminator, it was hypothesized that smokers will have higher standards of metal biomarkers compared to other non-users, as explained by Katelyn McGraw, a researcher in Columbia Public Health’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences and first author.

In the future, research on cannabis use and its contaminants, particularly metals, should be conducted to address public health concerns related to the growing number of consumers, stressed Tiffany R. Sanchez, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Public Health, and lead author.

Marijuana is the third most widely used drug in the world, behind tobacco and alcohol.

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